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Unified Kingdom of Tierra
The Unified Kingdom of Tierra is an island nation located in the center of the Infinite Sea. Early History The area that now comprises the nation of Tierra has experienced a turbulent history. Originally inhabited by a collection of native tribesmen known as the Kentauri, this untamed and untapped land eventually drew the hungry gaze of many of the great powers surrounding it. Eager to expand their territory, three of these powers; Old M'hidiyossi, Calligians, and Kian, each embarked on attempts to colonize the Tierran Isles, beginning a process that would see the natives driven to the southern highlands and the rest of the island divided between a collection of colonies owing fealty to one great power or another. Eventually though, these great powers would lose their grip on the colonies they'd founded, leaving behind a land divided between a dozen feuding petite kingdoms, all vying for dominance in a never-ending power struggle. But eventually these powers had established their own powers and settled down to stability and started to prosper. By the beginning of the 5th century of the Old Imperial Era, the island's most dominant powers are: Kingdom of Cunaris, who has most of the territories with some of the most fertile farmlands and fielded the largest army in the region. kingdom of Wulfram, who has the best navy of all and with the rich iron and coal mines as well as timber woodworks to fund and build their economy. Kingdom of Warburton, who is isolated from mainland Tierra, blessed by fertile croplands and prodigious silver mines, which made them to be relatively more wealthy than the rest. Along with these regional superpowers, the Principality of Aetoria is another relatively wealthy state who has great skills in trade and mercantile businesses armed with a massive maritime trading fleet and a pocket of well-armed and trained navy, along with the Kingdom of Leoniscourt, although located on a barrened rocky island of no natural resources, has an impenetrable fortress castle and formidable bastion that protects its infrustructures, as well as their King: House Cazarosta, a revered and deadly warrior bloodline known to other powers as their founder who is the most notorious pirate who plundered and murdered many settlers that enable themselves to found and establish the Kingdom. Aside of these major power players, in the Western "Salt Coast" where it has always been storm plagued and barrened, existed 2 powerful Archdukedoms: the Archduchy of Castermaine and the Archduchy of Crittenden. While the rest of the entire Salt Coast are a complete scattered collections of petite kingdoms and city-states of their own rights with little actual power over the Isle, but with a prideful attitude and spirit as being the ones who had conquered and settled in the badlands of Tierra. Unification By the time of 450 OIE, the ideas of unifying all of Tierra under one kingship has come to the mind of many of the ruling lords of Tierra, the first person who brought the idea was King Renard II "The Old Fox of Fernandescourt" of Cunaris, who had made agreement with the Prince of Aetoria, Edwin "The Strong" at Torrecastro of Aetoria in 457 OIE that they would work together under Fernandescourt's leadership to unit all of Tierra under the rule of House Findlay while making sure that House Rendower of Aetoria will gets its own share of interests afterwards. This state of affairs would begin to change with the death of Renard II and King Jerome IV's ascension to the throne of Cunaris, as Jerome IV (Later 1st Duke of Cunaris) was a weak willed monarch comparing to his father. With the death of Renard II and his weak willed son who is indecisive, Prince Edwin of Aetoria (later King Edwin I "The Strong") immediately seized the opportunity by making himself the supreme leader of Unification through bribery, show of force and manipulations. The Unification came to a decisive conclusion with Edwin's victory at the Battle of Montjoy, by effectively destroying the Salt Coast and Wulframite forces and established the Unified Kingdom of Tierra under the rulership of House Rendower. It is also when Edwin "The Strong" made his most powerful and famous gesture of making an oath to preserve baneblood noble rights in order to strengthen the proud Cunarian and Kentauri nobles who are not too keen on following a mere prince's rulership. This would later be known as "The oath at Montjoy", the foundation of Tierra's state of affairs and baneblood rights that emboden into every baneblood in the Cortes with the words that Edwin said on that fateful day "Upon this oath swear your loyalty to me; or by this blade strike me down". While the last of the petty kings would maintain their independence until the regency of his grandson, Edmund I, Edwin succeeded in establishing Tierra as the preeminent power in the region and spent his reign building the administrative and governmental apparatuses that would help define the Unified Kingdom for the next hundred years. Government The Tierran Government is mainly divided into two substructures: The Cortes and the Privy Council. The Cortes A form of constitutional monarchy, the Rendower monarchs serve as Tierra's hereditary heads of state and rule the nation together with the Cortes-a unitary chamber made up of the heads of every titled house in Tierra. It's this body that serves as the Unified Kingdom's legislature, and everything from taxation to title grants requires their assent before it can go into effect. The Privy Council The Privy Council serves as the King's most trusted consul on more important and sensitive matters, from the nation's foreign policies, trade, economic developments and law enforcement to the administration of the military, members of the council are appointed only by the King himself. Sub-governments The Kingdom although in name is a united confederation like government, it however has their own structures as well alongside with the existence of the Constitutional monarchy system. The Ducal governments are part of that structure: The Duchy of Aetoria, Duchy of Cunaris, Duchy of Havenport, Duchy of Wulfram and Duchy of Warburton are the existing Dukedoms of Tierra with their own unique structures and styles of governances. Besides the Dukedoms, there also existed the influential Earldoms of Leondiscourt, Castermaine and Crittenden who are also major players of the Cortes. Recent History After King Alaric's War, Tierra has maintained relatively icy relations with the League of Antar, who still stew over their defeat by a minor power. Upon the death of King Edmund IV, the Antari acted on this hostility, presenting the young and newly crowned King Miguel with a list of outrageous demands, threatening war should he refuse. Despite his youth and inexperience, Miguel refused to capitulate and outright refused the League's demands. Following this act of defiance, he ordered an expeditionary force assembled for an invasion of the Antari mainland, sparking the Dozen Years War and sending the Northern Kingdoms into turmoil with the war had directly triggered a spike in grain prices (as Antar is one of the major suppliers of grain to other smaller states of the Northern Kingdoms whose land are not sufficient enough to raise crops or to feed the entire population.) Tierra had in the end emerged victorious in the war, but at a great cost: over the last 7 years of the war with the Royal coffers emptied for both maintaining the Royal Navy as well as raising the army (the largest ever to be raised in Tierran history), the Crown had been taking massive loans from Takaran and Kian banks, further driving the nation's economy to turmoil and the verge of bankruptcy. The newly ascended Duke of Wulfram, Ewan d'al Candless started to stir up political standoffs with a faction of idealists and opportunists with the Royalist factions for asking to completely disband the armies for relieving the economy, while many had the ideas of maintaining the armies for future conflicts and be ready for it..... Category:Nations Category:Browse